Not Constructivism, but Experientialism[edit]

"Constructivism [Experientialism] is a philosophical viewpoint about the nature of knowledge. Specifically, it represents an epistemological stance.[1] There are many "flavors" of constructivism, but one prominent theorist known for his constructivist views is Jean Piaget, who focused on how humans make meaning in relation to the interaction between their experiences and their ideas". [Emphasis mine.]

"Constructivism" seems to imply that the student is building an Experiential World-View, and the accompanying Experiential World, however diverse and uniquely connected or unconnected it might be, that is meant to resemble an Ideal world-view which receives the approval of some "social elite" or "authority". There are moments in the construction of such a world, however, that will distinctly not meet with the approval of others, elite or otherwise, and yet these are, historically, a prelude to some of the most powerful insights into the limits and negative consequences of previously accepted and approved constructions.

An (Overly) Dramatic Critique[edit]

There is a specter haunting all of Mankind as Rational and Independent Individuals, and its name is Positivist Socialism. Its purpose is to strip even, and most especially, its most ardent practitioners, of any Rights or Duties of “Experience” or “Self-Awareness” which might limit the Human Instrumentalism, Utilitarianism, and Social Progress of the Positivist Doctrine. Any Theological appeal to Individuality as a Spiritual Being must be strangled in its crib; any Philosophical appeal to the examination of experience by the Human Mind, whether collectively, contemporaneously, historically, or individually, must be smothered, shot, or drowned. Positivism, like Theology and Metaphysics before it, proposes to be the Final Solution for all of the Proletariat and their Enlightened Oligarchy, on the glorious path to a Sociological Utopia; it cannot possibly have a Successor of its own. Such a Successor will never exist, because Humanity will be made incapable and undeserving of it. We will fill the “Tabula Rasa” of Social and Personal Experience with Empty Credentialism, and name this Void “Pedagogy”, for only the infantilized, mere intellectual children, hollowed of Experience, shall have any right to rule in our Utopia! The Irrefutable Authority of the Ruling Class has always eroded and corrupted the Rights and Duties of Self-Awareness, and forever hereafter, that Ruling Class will be those who, thoroughly unaware of themselves and their Rights and Duties, will be the most selfless, soulless, and mindless practitioners of Positivist Socialism.

Wikipedia Pages[edit]

Bibliography[edit]

The Harlem Renaissance???

Female Suffrage Movement

Abolitionist Perspectives

Feminist Perspectives, esp. Intersectionalism, and in opposition to Credentialism

Ayer, A. J. (Editor) Logical Positivism, The Free Press Corporation (1959)

Batz, Phillip A. The School of Hard Knocks, phillipabatz.wikia.com (with generous borrowings from those I mourn, heed, and encourage)

Comte, Auguste A General View of Positivism, Robert Speller and Sons (1957), Bridges, J. H. (trans.)

--Introduction to Positive Philosophy, The Bobbs-Merrill Company, Inc. (1970), Ferre, F. (trans and editor)

–-The Essential Comte, Barnes and Noble Books, New York (1974), Andreski, Stanislav (editor)

Freud, Sigmund Civilization and Its Discontents,

HORST W. J. RITTEL, MELVIN M. WEBBER, Dilemmas in a General Theory of Planning Policy Sciences 4 (1973), 155-169

Marvin, F. S. Comte: The Founder of Sociology, John Wiley and Sons, Inc. (1937)

Mill, John Stuart Auguste Comte and Positivism, University of Michigan Press (1961)

Pirsig, Robert M. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance,

Domains[edit]

Utopian socialism

Persons[edit]

Claude Henri de Rouvroy, comte de Saint-Simon
Adam Smith
Alan Ryan

Bacon, Francis

Bentham,

Berthelot,

Brown, Thomas

Comte, Auguste

Cousin,

Descartes,

Galileo,

Hamilton, William

Hobbes,

Hume, David

Jouffroy,

Kant, Immanuel

Littre,

Mill, John Stuart (18o6 – 1873)

Newton, Isaac

Royer – Collard,

Saint-Simon,

Spencer, Herbert

Taine,